Readers Guide: 'Freddy: A Love Story'

Susie Stooksbury

Friday

Jun 29, 2012 at 12:01 AMJun 29, 2012 at 4:13 AM

When Freddy Fagan was born in 1956, his family was advised to institutionalize him with other mentally challenged children. It turned out Freddy also had an added complication when it was discovered that he had cerebral palsy. Happily for the Fagans and our neighbors in Clinton, Tenn., Freddy stayed put -- to grow and learn, and to teach everyone he meets what life is really all about. He is such an integral part of the town that he even has a street named for him. Clinton High School English teacher Ray Oliver introduces us to this extraordinary man in "Freddy: A Love Story."

- When Freddy Fagan was born in 1956, his family was advised to institutionalize him with other mentally challenged children. It turned out Freddy also had an added complication when it was discovered that he had cerebral palsy. Happily for the Fagans and our neighbors in Clinton, Tenn., Freddy stayed put -- to grow and learn, and to teach everyone he meets what life is really all about. He is such an integral part of the town that he even has a street named for him. Clinton High School English teacher Ray Oliver introduces us to this extraordinary man in "Freddy: A Love Story."

- Comfortably settled on the coast of France, Thomas Nash believed he had left behind his life as a British agent after the fiasco in Petrograd in 1919. Living among a wide array of genial expats, he could almost believe Europe's troubles were far away -- as war loomed once again. But Tom's former skills as an agent come into play once again after two attempts are made on his life, forcing him to revisit the past in order to save his future. Mark Mills, author of "The Information Officer," returns with "House of the Hunted."

- While quite a bit has been written about the movement of foreigners into America over the last century, little attention has been paid to the migration of black Americans out of the "South of Jim Crow" seeking a better, safer life in the North and West. Journalist Isabel Wilkerson tells this phenomenal tale through the lives of three people who left the South at different times -- traveling to different cities, taking advantage of different opportunities, and experiencing different outcomes. "The Warmth of Other Suns" is "the epic story of America's great migration."

- Thirty-four years ago, Markus Magnusson's home village on tiny Heimaey Island off the coast of Iceland was completely engulfed when a nearby volcano erupted. Deserted for all those years, the little village has been chosen now to become a tourist attraction and archaeologists are ready to start excavating. Markus retains lawyer Thora Gudmundsdottir to go with him when he searches his old home for relics his family had to leave behind. As he enters the basement, though, he finds three bodies and a box containing the head of a corpse -- and suddenly Thora's easy job turns into a murder investigation. "Ashes to Dust" is the latest intriguing novel by Icelandic author Yrsa Sigurdardottir.

- Jaded by his experiences in World War II, Rod Serling found an outlet for his disillusionment through a number of award-winning plays he wrote for a new medium called television. As audiences grew, however, producers and sponsors wanted programs that were pure entertainment rather than think pieces. Serling managed to create both in his legendary show "The Twilight Zone." Gordon E. Sander recently re-printed his well-researched biography of this fascinating, troubled man in "Serling: the Rise and Twilight of TV's Last Angry Man."

- An old English estate, a book collection once owned by an eccentric 18th-century astronomer, and a particular dream recurring among members of a family are just some of the elements that have made Rachel Hore's debut "A Place of Secrets" a best-seller in England. Jude Gower is delighted to be hired to appraise the library of amateur astronomer Anthony Wickham because the job takes her home to Norfolk, where her mother and sister still live. In fact, her family has long had ties with the Wickhams, but she never realized how deep those ties go until her niece begins having the same dream Jude had when she was a little girl.

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